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Personally, most of the time I use my Shapton Glass 2k, and love it to death. Occasionally I break out the Green Brick for certain types of steel. Never used a Bester 2k, so unable to comment there.

_________________Shaun Fernandez

With great sharpness comes great responsibility.

boar_d_laze

Post subject: Re: Whetstone Starter Kit

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:24 pm

Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:46 pmPosts: 217

Syndcatenova:Are you planning on keeping the 250/1000?

If you are, you don't need a 2K at all. Think in terms of what you're trying to accomplish and you'll understand that you need a coarse stone for thinning, profiling and repair; a medium/coarse stone for drawing a fast, first burr; and a medium/fine stone for refining the edge and initiating a polish. At some point you may want to add a very fine or ultra fine stone for a true polish, but that's not a priority for now.

Your combi stone's 250 is "coarse," and the 1000 is "medium fine."

Your next stone, should probably be a Suehiro Rika or something very much like it. It's not the best stone at any cost, and not even all that great in the greater scheme. But the Rika is particularly good for beginners in that it gives excellent feedback; produces a lot of mud, making the sharpening process a lot easier to see and control; and it's very reasonably priced for the quality.

If you're open to replacing the 250/1000 with better quality separates, you have a lot of good choices -- at several different price levels.

If you're looking for an all inclusive set, you should take a look at the five and eight piece sets Mark's put together. The stones are well chosen, and they're reasonably priced. You can save a little money by buying separately and ditching the magnifier, felt block and stone holder -- but they're nice to have, especially the holder.

Drywall screen does a fairly good of flattening, $12 worth is damn near a life-time supply, but it's significantly slower and messier than a diamond plate -- so much so that a DMT XXC used to make a great deal of sens. Now though, CKtG has a great deal on a diamond plate that's plenty good enough for a home sharpener. If you're only going to reserve your plate for flattening, the DMT XXC and Atoma 140 are massive overkill.

The Bester 2K is pretty good as a first stone (assuming you don't need to thin or repair) if you want to jump directly from the first stone to an 8K. If you stop at the 5K-6K level, you'd do better with a Bester 1.2K. If you go to 10K or higher, it's kind of an awkward jump for the 2K; so again, you'd be better off with the 1.2K plus something in the 3-5K range to bridge the gap. The 2K is an efficient scratch remover when you're coming off a 400 or 500, but the 1.2K is even better.

On its own, the Bester 2K edge is an okay finish for knives which are dedicated to meat butchery, but I think something at least a little finer, like a Gesshin 2K or any one of several good 3Ks, would be better because their finer teeth will hold up better to impact and steeling. But the difference is minimal and whatever level of "bite" makes you happiest is going to be more important.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, my dedicated meat knives are all Euros which I sharpen to a "Black Arkansas" finish; I also use a Kono HD suji a lot for portioning and a Kono HH petty for boning, both of which are finished to 8K Gesshin or 1/2u CBN. Using finishes that fine for red meat work is probably a minority view, but wotthehell, wotthehell.

Knife Fanatic

Post subject: Re: Whetstone Starter Kit

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:47 pm

Forum Moderator

Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 8:34 pmPosts: 1699

Just for some added contrast and humor:

When I first started sharpening my buddy's knives (he's a meat cutter) he was maintaining them with a file. .... ... and you're talking about 8k. His knives were in bad shape to say the least.

_________________Shaun Fernandez

With great sharpness comes great responsibility.

Syndcatenova

Post subject: Re: Whetstone Starter Kit

Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:09 am

Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:15 amPosts: 63

boar_d_laze: What stone do you like to use after a 5k stone, like the Suehiro Rika?

Syndcatenova

Post subject: Re: Whetstone Starter Kit

Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:17 am

Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:15 amPosts: 63

I am keeping the 250/1000 I have now, but I'm open to recommendations.

Syndcatenova

Post subject: Re: Whetstone Starter Kit

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 8:57 pm

Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:15 amPosts: 63

Anyone have any experience with the Kitayama 8k? It's $20 dollars cheaper than the Snow White so I'm interested.

BadBoy

Post subject: Re: Whetstone Starter Kit

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 1:59 pm

Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:56 amPosts: 211Location: Austin, TX

I have both the Kitayama 8K and the Snow White. They are both great stones and I rank them equally, so for me whenever I cannot decide because two things are so close, I let price make the decision for me. If the Kitayama is less, then it is the winner.

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